Airbag device for a driver's seat

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016288756-A1
Application number	US-201615060804-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 4, 2016
Priority date	Mar 31, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An airbag of an airbag device for a driver's seat includes an exhaust strap which includes a cover section that closes off an outer opening of a vent hole at airbag deployment and connecting bands extending from opposite sides of the cover section and joined to the center of a driver-side wall. When the driver-side wall of the airbag cushions the driver at airbag deployment and moves toward a vehicle-side wall, the connecting bands of the exhaust strap loosen and allow a distant edge region of the cover section to loosen and pass through the outer opening such that the outer opening and an inner opening communicate to open the vent hole. The cover section includes a reinforcing element that prevents the distant edge from slipping towards a proximate edge while allowing a bending deformation of the distant edge to pass through the outer opening and open the vent hole.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An airbag device for a driver's seat adapted to be mounted on a boss section of a steering wheel of a vehicle disposed at a generally center of a rim of the steering wheel, the airbag device comprising an airbag stored in the boss section in a folded-up configuration and inflatable with an inflation gas,
wherein the airbag includes a vehicle-side wall deployable towards the rim of the steering wheel, a driver-side wall deployable towards the driver's seat and a plurality of tethers that connect the vehicle-side wall and driver-side wall for regulating a clearance between the vehicle-side wall and driver-side wall at airbag deployment; wherein the vehicle-side wall includes:
an inlet opening disposed generally at the center of the vehicle-side wall for introducing an inflation gas;
a vent hole disposed in a vicinity of the inlet opening for releasing the inflation gas;
an outer face region that forms an outer shell of the vehicle-side wall at the location of the vent hole; and
an inner face region that is disposed on an inner side of the outer face region;
wherein the vent hole includes an outer opening formed on the outer face region and an inner opening formed on the inner face region in such a manner as to overlap with the outer opening; wherein a pair of tethers out of said tethers serves as an exhaust strap including:
a cover section that is held between the outer face region and inner face region in such a manner as to be joined to the vehicle-side wall and closes off the outer opening at airbag deployment in an openable fashion; and
a pair of connecting bands extending from opposite sides of the cover section and joined to the driver-side wall, the connecting bands extending from the cover section in a symmetrical fashion with respect to a straight line connecting the inlet opening and vent hole as viewed from a part of the driver-side wall at full inflation of the airbag;
wherein the cover section includes a proximate edge disposed on a part close to the inlet opening and a distant edge disposed on a part distant from the inlet opening, and the cover section is joined to the vehicle-side wall by the proximate edge; wherein the outer face region and inner face region of the vehicle-side wall are joined together by inner edges thereof disposed on a part close to the inlet opening and outer edges thereof disposed on a part away from the inlet opening so as to hold the cover section of the exhaust strap between the outer face region and inner face region; wherein the exhaust strap closes off the vent hole at airbag deployment with the cover section and is so configured, when the driver-side wall cushions a driver at airbag deployment and moves toward the vehicle-side wall, that the connecting bands loosen and allow a region of the cover section towards the distant edge to loosen and pass through the outer opening such that the outer opening and inner opening communicate to open the vent hole; wherein the connecting bands of the exhaust strap are joined to the driver-side wall at a position closer to a center of the driver-side wall compared with a position of the vent hole and in a symmetrical fashion about a center region of the driver-side wall, as viewed from the part of the driver-side wall at full deployment of the airbag; and wherein the cover section of the exhaust strap includes a reinforcing element that prevents the distant edge of the cover section from slipping towards the proximate edge while allowing a bending deformation of the distant edge to pass through the outer opening and open the vent hole.

2 . The airbag device for a driver's seat according to claim 1 , wherein the reinforcing element is composed of a reinforcing cloth joined to the cover section.

3 . The airbag device for a driver's seat according to claim 2 , wherein:
the reinforcing cloth is sewn to the cover section by an outer peripheral edge thereof such that a seam sewing the reinforcing cloth to the cover section is disposed between the outer face region and the inner face region; and the seam includes a pair of first straight regions that extend generally in parallel to the straight line connecting the inlet opening and vent hole at opposite edges of the cover section adjoining the connecting bands and a second straight region that extends in such a manner as to connect the first straight regions at an outer edge of the reinforcing cloth adjoining the distant edge of the cover section.

4 . The airbag device for a driver's seat according to claim 1 , wherein:
another pair of tethers out of said tethers serves as a regulating strap only for regulating the clearance between the vehicle-side wall and driver-side wall; the regulating strap includes a vehicle-side joint region that is joined to the vehicle-side wall at a position point-symmetrical with the inner face region with respect to the inlet opening and a pair of connecting bands extending from opposite edges of the vehicle-side joint region and joined to the driver-side wall; the connecting bands of the regulating strap are joined to the driver-side wall at a position closer to the center of the driver-side wall compared with the position of the vehicle-side joint region and in a symmetrical fashion with respect to the center region of the driver-side wall, as viewed from the part of the driver-side wall at full deployment of the airbag; and the connecting bands of the regulating strap and connecting bands of the exhaust strap are joined to the driver-side wall evenly radially with respect to the center of the driver-side wall.

5 . The airbag device for a driver's seat according to claim 4 , wherein:
the exhaust strap is composed of two separate components that are joined together at an intermediate region of each of the connecting bands; a vehicle-side component and a driver-side component; the vehicle-side component includes the cover section and a pair of vehicle-side connecting regions extending from the opposite sides of the cover section and forming regions of the connecting bands adjoining the cover section, while the driver-side component includes a pair of driver-side connecting regions to be joined to the vehicle-side connecting regions and a joint region that connects the driver-side connecting regions to the driver-side wall; the regulating strap is composed of two separate components that are joined together at an intermediate region of each of the connecting bands of the regulating strap; a vehicle-side component and a driver-side component; the vehicle-side component of the regulating strap includes the vehicle-side joint region and a pair of vehicle-side connecting regions extending from opposite sides of the vehicle-side joint region and forming regions of the connecting bands of the regulating strap adjoining the vehicle-side joint region, while the driver-side component of the regulating strap includes a pair of driver-side connecting regions to be joined to the vehicle-side connecting regions of the vehicle-side component of the regulating strap and a joint region that connects the driver-side connecting regions of the regulating strap to the driver-side wall; the vehicle-side component of the exhaust strap and the vehicle-side component of the regulating strap are provided in an integrated fashion as a shared vehicle-side component having a sheet shape, in which a reinforcing region to be sewn to a periphery of the inlet opening is disposed between the vehicle-side components of the exhaust strap and regulating strap; and the driver-side component of the exhaust strap and the driver-side component of the regulating strap are provided in an integrated fashion as a shared driver-side component having a sheet shape.

6 . The airbag device for a driver's seat according to claim 1 , wh

Assignees

• Toyoda Gosei Kk

Inventors

• Ishiguro Naohiko
• Hayashi Mikine
• Fukurono Kenichi
• Sasaki Kenji

Classifications

• B60R21/233

  comprising a plurality of individual compartments; comprising two or more bag-like members, one within the other (B60R21/232 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60R2021/23316

  Inner seams, e.g. creating separate compartments or used as tethering means · CPC title

• B60R2021/23382

  Internal tether means · CPC title

• B60R21/203 Primary

  in steering wheels or steering columns · CPC title

• B60R21/239

  characterised by their venting means · CPC title